Results tagged “beaumont” from News 24/7

A Riverside County judge has ordered two doctors to perform a mental evaluation of the man accused of killing a 10-year-old Beaumont boy in 1997 to see if he is able to stand trial.

The defendant, 45-year-old Joseph Edward Duncan III, appeared in court today at Larson Justice Center, in Indio. court records state. He has been charged with the death of Anthony Martinez, who was playing outside his home when he was taken on April 4, 1997.

The boy's nude and battered body was found about two weeks later beneath a pile of rocks in rural Indio.

Testimony was abruptly stopped this morning in the trial for Esperanza Fire arsonist Raymond Lee Oyler so that doctors could perform an unspecified evaluation of the defendant.

After the morning break, lawyers in the case went into the chambers of Judge W. Charles Morgan. Upon returning to the courtroom, the judge released the jury for the day and asked for a list of three doctors that could evaluate Oyler within 24 to 48 hours.

The judge did not say what might be ailing the 38-year-old Beaumont man. Testimony is underway in the penalty phase of the trial, where jurors will decide whether Oyler receives the death penalty or spends the rest of his life in state prison. Proceedings are scheduled to resume tomorrow in Riverside Superior Court.

Joseph Edward Duncan II, the 43-year-old suspect in the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Beaumont resident Anthony Martinez arrived in Bermuda Dunes today.

Duncan has been convicted of killing three people in Idaho, as well as kidnapping a brother and sister.

Police from a number of Riverside County agencies arrested three people during an 8 a.m. operation in Banning and Beaumont Thursday.

On Nov. 21, 2008, there was a shooting at 456 E. Nicolet St. in Banning. One person was injured, and more than 40 rounds were fired in the apartment complex. Thursday's operation was a response to that shooting, according to a Banning police news release.

Banning police, a Riverside County Sheriff's teams the San Gorgonio Special Operations Gang Task Force and the Palm Springs & Cathedral City Police S.W.A.T. Unit took part in the operation Thursday. Warrants were served at 456 E. Nicolet St., 535 Cheyenne Circle in Banning and 1475 Playa St. in Beaumont. Police recovered one gun and arrested three people: 25-year-old Banning resident Jamie Edward Hendon III, 20-year-old Banning resident Luis Enrique Torres and 18-year-old Banning resident Miguel Torres. They were booked at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning. Police had warrants for their arrest because they believe they were involved in the November shooting, according to the release.

Police are still looking for three people: 20-year-old Banning resident Melissa Elaine Martinez, 20-year-old Banning resident Darian Kashan Howard and 19-year-old Beaumont resident Lester Leo Ward.

Anyone with information about the case or the the location of the three remaining suspects, should call Banning police at (951) 922-3180.

Two adults were displaced from their Beaumont home Tuesday afternoon after part of it was damaged in a fire.

The 12:52 p.m. fire in the 1100 block of Edgar Avenue was contained to the living room and some items inside the single-family home, according to a Cal Fire news release.

There were no injuries in the fire, but fire officials called out the American Red Cross to help the adults who were displaced.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The father of a four-year-old Beaumont girl who died after she was ejected from the
truck she was riding in Sunday night in Hesperia has been charged in the girl's death.

The District Attorney has charged 25-year-old Dawaun Vernon with gross vehicular
manslaughter while intoxicated, two counts of child abuse and two DUI charges
despite having a previous DUI conviction, according to a complaint filed Tuesday.
Another child, five-year-old Aaliyah Vernon, was also in the truck, but was not
injured.

At 10:12 p.m., Joanna Vernon, who was riding in the back seat of the Chevy Tahoe
and not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected on the southbound 15 Freeway near Joshua
Street after the truck drifted into the right shoulder and then rolled over at least four times after Vernon over-corrected, according to information from the coroner's department and the California Highway Patrol.

California Highway Patrol officers performed CPR before Joanna was taken to Desert
Valley Hospital in Victorville. She was later flown to Loma Linda University
Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 4:12 a.m. Monday.

Dawaun Vernon and Aaliyah, who was wearing a seatbelt, were both taken to Desert Valley Hospital as well. Vernon complained of left-elbow pain.

Vernon is being held at West Valley Detention Center on $101,154 bail.

He refused a video arraignment scheduled for today, so the arraignment needed to be
rescheduled.

A 4-year-old Beaumont girl died when the 1999 Chevy Tahoe she was riding in rolled
over and ejected her Sunday night in Hesperia.

At 10:12 p.m., Joanna Vernon was in the back seat of the truck heading southbound
on the 15 Freeway near Joshua Street, according to a coroner's news release. The
truck drifted into the right shoulder and then rolled over a number of times. Vernon was not wearing a seatbelt.

When California Highway Patrol Officers arrived, they performed CPR before she was
taken to Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville and then flown to Loma Linda
University Medical Center. She was pronounced dead at 4:12 a.m. today.

There was another child in the truck who was not injured. The CHP will investigate,
and an autopsy will be conducted on Vernon.

A 26-year-old Beaumont man died early this morning after he lost control of the car he was driving and hit a light pole in Beaumont, officials said.

Craig Anthony Gentilcore was driving at a very high rate of speed on the eastbound 10 Freeway west of Oak Valley Parkway around 1:15 a.m. when his Mazda sedan crossed into the shoulder and the driver's-side door hit the light pole, according to reports from the California Highway Patrol and the Riverside County Coroner.

Gentilcore was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jennifer Vargas, a 21-year-old Moreno Valley woman who was his passenger, was taken to Riverside Regional County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley with lacerations and back pain.

According to the CHP news release, Gentilcore suffered massive head and internal injuries.

A man charged with the violent murders of three men was sentenced today to life in state prison, after a Superior Court judge denied his attempt to back out of a plea bargain that helped him avoid the death penalty.

Defendant Christopher Richard Lanteigne, 29, and co-defendants Camille Vredenburg, 27, and Christopher Weaver, 32, pleaded guilty as part of a package deal for their roles in a 2004 series of crimes, including the murders, that extended from San Bernardino to the San Gorgonio Pass.

 

On Mar. 5, Lanteigne and Weaver pleaded guilty to three counts of murder - as part of a plea bargain package - in the deaths of Scott Fisher, 42, of San Bernardino, Clayton McCobb, 44, of Ramona and Kareem Mohammed Radwan, 26, of Loma Linda. But Lanteigne later changed his mind.

Riverside County prosecutors intend to extradite convicted child killer Joseph Edward Duncan and try him in the death of a 10-year-old Beaumont boy, despite objections from the father of one of Duncan's other victims.

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Idaho sentenced Duncan to three life prison terms for kidnapping and sexually abusing two children. Those federal terms were in addition to three more life terms, imposed the same day in state court, for the murders of the children's mother, her fiance and the children's 13-year-old brother.

Duncan was sentenced to death in August for the kidnapping, sexual exploitation and murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene in 2005. The 45-year-old convicted pedophile also kidnapped the boy's younger sister.

Meanwhile, Riverside County prosecutors have been waiting for their chance to prosecute Duncan on charges in the abduction and death of Anthony Martinez.